Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the annual expenditure by the National Institute for Health and Care Research on research workforce development programmes, including fellowships, training awards and capacity-building initiatives, was in each financial year from 2019–20 to 2024–25; and what proportion of that expenditure was allocated to (a) dementia, (b) cancer, (c) stroke and (d) coronary heart disease research, where such categorisation is held.

Through the National Institute of Health and Care Research, the Department invests in building research expertise and capacity, specialist facilities, and support services to support research across all aspects of human health, including dementia, cancer, stroke and coronary heart disease.

From 2019/20 to 2024/25, total spending on research workforce development programmes was £884.7 million, rising from £117.1 million in 2019/20 to £217.4 million in 2024/25, with annual expenditure of £113.5 million in 2020/21, £129.2 million in 2021/22, £140.8 million in 2022/23, and £166.7 million in 2023/24.

Not all programmes, fellowships, training awards, and awards that do not fund research are routinely coded by disease area, so it is not possible to provide a breakdown of research workforce expenditure across dementia, cancer, stroke, and coronary heart disease. In many cases, individual research workforce activity also spans more than one disease area.